1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and a device for controlling operating processes applied to particles, the device comprising a number of contrivances, the operating processes of said contrivances being initiated according to a common, pre-set cycle, at least one of the contrivances being associated with a correcting process initiated by sensor means detecting faults in the operating process.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It has become an important subdomain of industry to apply operating processes to particles. This is first of all due to the great number of operating processes whose automization has proved advantageous. Such processes are for example: feeding, defining shapes and positions; turning, positioning, palletizing, conveying, sorting out, depositing; processing, particularly forming, punching; embossing, breaking, cutting, sawing, marking, labelling, joining, welding, rivetting, assembling, inserting, threading, gluing; mechanic or electronic measuring, testing; counting, collecting until reaching set values, supervising, statistic plotting, packing and stamping. The above-mentioned and further operations can be applied to a great number of different parts, e.g. to mechanic components, such as pins, sheaths, bolts, rings, springs, or to structural members and elements for electronics and electrotechnics, such as crystals, discs, bodies of ceramics or plastics, bimetal members, switch-members, wire parts, soldering-plates, print-plates and circuit-elements.
The above-mentioned list of examples is by no means exhaustive as operating processes involving particles and their automization are also of importance in food industry, spectacle production and optic industry, jewelry production, toy industry, chemical industry etc.
All prior art processes of the above-described kind have the disadvantage that inevitable errors occurring in the course of the individual process cycles excessively influence the total output. If no correcting processes are provided the percentage of defective rejects rises to become uneconomic with the increasing number of operations. If, however, correcting programs are associated with the individual processing stages these corrections stop the whole device for one complete operating cycle, whereby the output per time unit will be excessively decreased.